France’s Fos Cavaou LNG terminal receives first Angolan cargo

Fosmax LNG received its first ever cargo from Angola at the Fos Cavaou liquefied natural gas terminal on the Mediterranean coast, 50 km west of Marseille. 

LNG terminal operator Fosmax, a unit of Engie’s Elengy, through its social media channels on Tuesday, said that the LNG tanker Sonangol Benguela docked at the Fos Cavaou terminal’s jetty.

According to the AIS data provided by the vessel tracking website, MarineTraffic, the 160,500-cbm LNG vessel departed the Chevron-led 5.2 million tons per year Angola LNG plant in Soyo on February 1.

During January, natural gas send-out from the Fos Cavaou terminal, that has a 330,000-cbm LNG storage capacity and is capable of regasifying 8.25 billion cubic meters per year was lower.

Low cargo deliveries to the terminal, coupled with the persisting cold snap had adverse effects on the gas supply in France’s South-East.

France imports 98 percent of its natural gas requirements with 30 percent of that coming in the form of LNG.

The country imports the chilled fuel via four regasification plants. Three of them are operated by Elengy with the newest plant located within the Dunkirk port being run by EDF.